Afghan police kill 8 at protest

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A man injured during Wednesday’s demonstration in southern Afghanistan was tended to at the main hospital in Kandahar. Villagers said police opened fire on hundreds.

By Kathy Gannon
Associated Press
May 09, 2013

KABUL — Afghan police were accused of killing eight protesters at a demonstration on Wednesday as the US-led ­coalition said it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops in an encounter with insurgents.

Both events occurred in southern Afghanistan, where violence has escalated in recent weeks following a Taliban ­announcement launching the start of its spring offensive.

Abdul Qayyum, a 45-year-old demonstrator, disputed that, saying by phone that “there were no Taliban among the protesters.”

“The local people of Maiwand district are so upset and unhappy with the government and the foreigners because they are conducting night raids on the houses of local people,” he said. “With no reason, they are entering local houses and doing whatever they want. We don’t want all these things to keep happening to us.”

In the past, President Hamid Karzai has bitterly criticized raids on village homes, particularly those carried out during the night.

In a separate incident, the NATO-led force said Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct following an internal report into an April 28 ­encounter with insurgents in Zabul Province.

The statement did not offer more details and Lieutenant Tamarac Dyer, a spokeswoman for the coalition, told the AP in an e-mail that “this is the only information we are able to release at this time due to the ongoing investigation.”

Afghan officials were not immediately available for comment.

The statement quoted US General Joseph Dunford, the top commander of NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, as saying that the alliance takes “all allegations of misconduct by our personnel very seriously.” He pledged to “fully investigate the incident and keep the Afghan government informed.”

Elsewhere in southern ­Afghanistan, three people were killed when their vehicle triggered an explosive device in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province. Another six people were injured, said Shamim Noorzai, the provincial police chief spokesman.

“They can’t fight us face to face,” Raziq said in a recent ­interview.

Also on Wednesday, the ­Afghan intelligence service said it arrested an Afghan national who confessed to having been sent by the Taliban to carry out a suicide bombing against ­Abdullah Abdullah, a presidential candidate in the 2009 election and the head of an opposition party called the National Coalition of Afghanistan.

It showed a video of the ­alleged would-be bomber whom the intelligence service said was arrested while scouting Abdullah’s headquarters. The intelligence service, the ­National ­Directorate of Security said ­Abdullah and another member of the opposition ­party, Ahmed Zia Masoud, were the intended targets.

Fazal Sangcharaki, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, said the strident anti-Taliban leader has had many threats in the past, but “unfortunately the NDS has not informed us about this arrest and this particular threat.”

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